9. Membership
Member List
Last updated Aug 8 2023: 152 total members (+13 added -3 removed since the May update)
For transparency purposes, we are disclosing each Guild member’s team, the name/identifier, and a link to their work. This set will evolve over time as members leave core development or change teams.
Team |
Name / Link to work |
|---|---|
Consensys DDS |
|
Consensys DDS |
|
EF DevOps |
|
EF DevOps |
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EF DevOps |
|
EF DevOps |
|
EF DevOps |
|
EF Geth |
|
EF Geth |
|
EF Geth |
|
EF Geth |
|
EF Geth |
|
EF Geth |
|
EF Geth |
|
EF Geth |
|
EF Ipsilon |
|
EF Ipsilon |
|
EF Ipsilon |
|
EF Ipsilon |
|
EF Ipsilon |
|
EF JavaScript |
|
EF JavaScript |
|
EF JavaScript |
|
EF JavaScript |
|
EF JavaScript |
|
EF JavaScript |
|
EF Portal |
|
EF Portal |
|
EF Portal |
|
EF Portal |
|
EF Portal |
|
EF Portal |
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EF Protocol Support |
|
EF Protocol Support |
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EF Protocol Support |
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EF Protocol Support |
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EF Protocol Support |
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EF Protocol Support |
|
EF Protocol Support |
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EF Research |
|
EF Research |
|
EF Research |
|
EF Research |
|
EF Research |
|
EF Research |
|
EF Research |
|
EF Research |
|
EF Research |
|
EF Research |
|
EF Research |
|
EF Research |
|
EF Research |
|
EF Research |
|
EF Research |
|
EF Research |
|
EF Robust Incentives Group (RIG) |
|
EF Robust Incentives Group (RIG) |
|
EF Robust Incentives Group (RIG) |
|
EF Robust Incentives Group (RIG) |
|
EF Robust Incentives Group (RIG) |
|
EF Security |
|
EF Security |
|
EF Security |
|
EF Security |
|
EF Security |
|
EF Testing |
|
Erigon |
|
Erigon |
|
Erigon |
|
Erigon |
|
Erigon |
|
Ethereum Cat Herders |
|
Hyperledger Besu |
|
Hyperledger Besu |
|
Hyperledger Besu |
|
Hyperledger Besu |
|
Hyperledger Besu |
|
Hyperledger Besu |
|
Hyperledger Besu |
|
Hyperledger Besu |
|
Hyperledger Besu |
|
Hyperledger Besu |
|
Hyperledger Besu |
|
Hyperledger Besu |
|
Hyperledger Besu |
|
Independent |
|
Independent |
|
Lighthouse |
|
Lighthouse |
|
Lighthouse |
|
Lighthouse |
|
Lighthouse |
|
Lighthouse |
|
Lighthouse |
|
Lighthouse |
|
Lighthouse |
|
Lodestar |
|
Lodestar |
|
Lodestar |
|
Lodestar |
|
Lodestar |
|
Lodestar |
|
Lodestar |
|
Lodestar |
|
Nethermind |
|
Nethermind |
|
Nethermind |
|
Nethermind |
|
Nethermind |
|
Nethermind |
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Nethermind |
|
Nethermind |
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Nethermind |
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Nethermind |
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Nethermind |
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Nethermind |
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Nethermind |
|
Nethermind |
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Prysm |
|
Prysm |
|
Prysm |
|
Prysm |
|
Prysm |
|
Prysm |
|
Prysm |
|
Prysm |
|
Prysm |
|
Prysm |
|
Stateless Consensus |
|
Stateless Consensus |
|
Stateless Consensus |
|
Status |
|
Status |
|
Status |
|
Status |
|
Status |
|
Status |
|
Status |
|
Status |
|
Status |
|
Status |
|
Teku |
|
Teku |
|
Teku |
|
Teku |
|
Teku |
|
Teku |
|
Teku |
|
Teku |
|
TXRX |
|
TXRX |
|
TXRX |
Addresses and Weights
Member addresses and weights can be seen in the Split contract.
Note that these addresses and weights will change over time as members change from full-time to part-time (or vice-versa), and as members are on/offboarded.
Read more about how weighting is determined in 6.3 Weighting.
Quotes
We asked members to share why they think the Protocol Guild is important for Ethereum, below are their responses:
Adrian Manning (Lighthouse) - “Lighthouse is the Rust implementation of Ethereum Beacon Chain, a key component in Ethereum’s transition to PoS Although Lighthouse is one of a few major production Eth2 clients, it’s imperative that more than 1 production client is used in the space to avoid the chain collapsing if bugs/vulnerabilities are found in a single client. Protocol Guild supports the teams working on minority clients, which is an important initiative.”
Alex Stokes (EF Research) - “The Protocol Guild is an experiment in public goods funding that aims to align the incentives of core protocol contributors with the continued stewardship of the ecosystem by allowing these contributors to share in the value created by their hard work. This mechanism is important for the future of Ethereum as it ensures continuity of protocol direction, maintenance, and growth amongst a set of dedicated individuals who deeply care about realizing the collective vision that inspires everyone who interacts with our community.”
Alex Vlasov (TXRX) - “Ethereum - and blockchains, in general - unveils tremendous opportunities and one of them is building a more fair world. Protocol Guild serves several purposes: 1. It’s an instrument for public goods funding, which is often underrated 2. It’s a research and an exploration of innovative social mechanisms 3. It aims to support Ethereum Protocol contributors”
Ansgar Dietrichs (EF Research) - “I strongly believe that not enshrining a contributor funding mechanism into the base chain was the correct choice for Ethereum (crucial for its credible neutrality). But in order to keep attracting top level talent to the core dev space, we need to experiment with out-of-protocol ways of funding. Protocol Guild is a very exciting project in that regard and hopefully a first step towards a sustainable funding structure.”
Anton Nashatyrev (TXRX) - “I would really love to see Guild as an instrument for long term incentivisation of people who just want to develop Ethereum and don’t want to worry about buying food for themselves tomorrow ”
Carl Beekhuizen (EF Research) - “As researchers we spend a lot of time worrying about incentive compatibility. This guild nudges us towards a better incentive landscape for those working on the protocol.”
Core Contributor - “A diversified community will certainly benefit the entire Ethereum ecosystem in the long-term. I believe protocol guild is the right place to be for attracting multi-dimensional talents from various areas of strength, which is an ideal way that helps to maintain a healthy eco-system for the days to come.”
Core Contributor - “A huge ecosystem is building up upon the base Ethereum protocol. If we want this base layer to remain independent and maintained like a true public good, incentive alignment is a key factor. Let’s make the Protocol Guild an inspiring and successful experiment! ”
Core Contributor - “A novel way to fund large-scale open source work. Of course, the EF funds a lot of work, but having a more distributed stream of funding is more fair and robust.”
Core Contributor - “Decentralized Apps. Decentralized Ecosystem. Decentralized Funding.”
Core Contributor - “Decentralized eco-systems are hard to build, and client diversity is harder but super important for a robust social code consensus on a protocol. That requires on-par commitment, perseverance, continuous innovation, learning and contributions. And not to mention community support!”
Core Contributor - “Ethereum base layer is a core part of the Ethereum ecosystem. Incentivising people to keep contributing to the protocol will ensure the longevity of the network as well as let applications built on top of Ethereum thrive and become more accessible to the wide public. The Protocol Guild is a good start and I am excited to be part of it.”
Core Contributor - “Ethereum is bigger than the Ethereum Foundation - there’s an entire community of teams and individuals doing important work. However, many depend on salaries from an entity they are associated with. The PG project fills this vacancy and lets the community fund protocol devs. This decentralized funding mechanism will be critical for attracting and retaining Ethereum protocol builders.”
Core Contributor - “Ethereum is public infrastructure for the world. Building infrastructure is hard, because everyone wants to enjoy it, but no one wants to be the chump left paying the bill, which often induces zero-sum thinking and protecting one’s own interests rather than contributing. Protocol Guild ensures stability for those who choose to contribute and creates an environment of positive-sum thinking, powered entirely by the Ethereum ecosystem and the value it brings to the world.”
Core Contributor - “I believe Protocol Guild will produce good incentives for Core Devs to stay focused on building the protocol.”
Core Contributor - “I believe that the Protocol Guild will help to retain and attract the talent necessary for building and maintaining the foundation of the Ethereum ecosystem.”
Core Contributor - “I believe this experiment will result in a great precedent on how to keep the core values of the Ethereum protocol alive and relevant.”
Core Contributor - “I think open source is really important today and is one of the pillars of the world today, and it is going to be more and more important in future, but as today a proper way to reward its developers is missing, so I hope that this experiment will create the basis for a wider approach that could improve the sustainability of open source development.”
Core Contributor - “Incentive alignment is one of the core issues that impact the long term health of a software/network. I think the Protocol Guild helps solve a part of the incentive alignment problem by allowing members to gain exposure to the network they are developing. I feel like it will go a long way in helping keep and onboard new core developers, as well as ensure everyone has skin in the game.”
Core Contributor - “It is an interesting concept to fund the Ethereum project, provides both funds and incentives/reward for core devs to do more, and that in my opinion set this open source community a part from the rest.”
Core Contributor - “It is important that we allow those that contribute to the core protocol the opportunity to be financially rewarded on a similar scale as those that choose to operate in the private sector. Without such a mechanism, the choice to work on the core protocol is also a choice to forfeit monetary rewards offered elsewhere, which in many cases, will lead to continual attrition of talent into the private sector.”
Core Contributor - “It is important to retain talent in this industry, and the Protocol Guild provides a mechanism for doing so. Decentralized public goods funding of the researchers and developers that build the underlying technology have good chances of benefitting the applications built on top, long term.”
Core Contributor - “It should help to bring and keep talents in the Ethereum core dev group.”
Core Contributor - “It’s great to see the incentive problem trying to be solved for existing and also new core contributors.”
Core Contributor - “It’s sad that those who develop open technologies have historically profited far less than those who build on top of open technologies. I think that the Protocol Guild is the start of something very important to Ethereum.”
Core Contributor - “Let’s make base layer r&d long term sexy!”
Core Contributor - “maybe the log4j exploit might not have happened with more funding, let’s try to make the same not happening on Ethereum.”
Core Contributor - “Motivating talent towards Ethereum development is critical to stay competitive in this dynamic industry.”
Core Contributor - “PG is a powerful mechanism as it essentially decentralises funding for protocol work, and empowers anyone to step up and contribute.”
Core Contributor - “Protocol contributors enable the creation of value. Rewarding them proportionally to the value created can sustain their work and attract additional talent. Token contributions from successful projects is a great way to achieve that.”
Core Contributor - “Protocol Guild is a great way to reward Ethereum core developers for the infrastructure work that they are doing.”
Core Contributor - “Protocol Guild is a platform for the community to acknowledge and appreciate the talent and dedication that keeps Ethereum going.”
Core Contributor - “Protocol Guild is one of the most important efforts within Ethereum right now because it creates an independent parallel structure for supporting core development. This is very unique across the whole crypto ecosystem where we see many projects struggling from lack of decentralized support of contributors. ”
Core Contributor - “prysm implements the ethereum beacon chain proof of stake protocol. The beacon chain is important because eliminating proof of work is a moral imperative. Multiple implementations of the beacon chain do and should exist for the resilience of the network. prysm is written in go, which is a language designed to minimize the complexity of strongly typed, highly concurrent source code. This means that prysm can be performant, have good support for safety and correctness, while also being built from source code that is easier to read and audit than other system languages. More eyes on the implementation should lead to greater understanding of how the system works and more confidence in the network.”
Core Contributor - “The backbone of Ethereum is its diversity and the resilience it fosters. In order to safeguard its evolution, it’s crucial to maintain a broad array of contributors who work in sync towards common goals. The Protocol Guild underlines this approach, by establishing a sustainable incentive model that supports those committed to the continued development and protection of Ethereum’s open-source protocol. This initiative plays an instrumental role in ensuring a healthy, robust, and fair landscape for Ethereum’s future.”
Core Contributor - “The domain is inherently complicated, so there need to be incentive to attract capable developer. Relatively speaking, it also requires pretty beefy equiptment (large capacity ssd) whose cost can add up.”
Core Contributor - “The Ethereum ecosystem is capable of delivering enormous value. But a huge disparity has arisen between the rewards available to those who build the Ethereum protocol and those who build on the Ethereum protocol. The whole community should be concerned about this: unless the foundations are continually maintained and improved, the entire building is at risk. Almost uniquely, our own technology gives us the tools to align all our incentives. The Protocol Guild is a creative approach to recognising and rewarding the foundation-builders - essential if we want to continue to deliver on Ethereum’s promise long into the future.”
Core Contributor - “The Ethereum Foundation, however successful beyond what might have been reasonably expected of it, still comprises a single point of failure. The protocol guild can help ensure the values the foundation has helped shepherd can sustainably adapt in a decentralized fashion consistent with Ethereum’s core principles.”
Core Contributor - “The Ethereum Protocol needs careful and long-term thinking. Despite core-devs are very value driven, their short lifetime (compared to the pretended Ethereum lifetime) introduces some economic opportunity costs which can put Ethereum development at risk. Funding is just a problem that gets in the way between the protocol development and core-devs. I wish PG can fix this problem!”
Core Contributor - “The Guild is a great way to assure the high quality of contributions while diversifying the set of contributors, leading to solid and always-improving protocols for the whole ecosystem.”
Core Contributor - “The Guild will help retain existing and attract new talented contributors to the Ethereum revolution.”
Core Contributor - “The Protocol Guild plays a vital role in expanding the Ethereum ecosystem by attracting skilled individuals to the blockchain space. By rewarding highly engaged participants, it provides an additional incentive to drive continuous improvement. Furthermore, the Guild fosters collaboration among key stakeholders within Ethereum, facilitating crucial discussions on pressing topics. This collective effort ultimately unites contributors under a shared objective: to enhance the decentralized world for the better.”
Core Contributor - “The Protocol Guild will help ensure Ethereum provides the world with the decentralized future it needs.”
Core Contributor - “The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. But without the parts there is no whole. This project addresses the parts without diminishing the whole.”
Core Contributor - “This type of a public funding should be main source of funds for such a projects like Ethereum blockchain research and development.”
Core Contributor - “With its rewards beyond casual wages or project grants, Protocol Guild inspires members to apply their efforts to the Ethereum development in unrehearsed ways and directions where forces of EF and big companies are missed. It preserves the strong community engagement over major pathways, which safeguards Ethereum’s decentralization.”
Danny Ryan (EF Protocol Support) - “Public goods are hard.”
Davide Crapis (EF Robust Incentives Group (RIG)) - “Public goods are the backbone of a thriving ecosystem.”
Dmitry Khovratovich (EF Research) - “We work on a number of projects: VDFs, zero knowledge protocols, validator secure selection, – which all make Ethereum 2.0 faster, secure, and simple. We are taking the best from the most advanced cryptographic schemes today, and sometimes invent new ones.”
Fredrik Svantes (EF Security) - “Funding public goods/FOSS, especially on an individual level, is hard. Protocol Guild helps make this easier for individuals from across the world to partake in the future of Ethereum without also having to be part of a larger organization. By creating this sustainable effort, the Protocol Guild is helping to further provide long term health of the protocol layer, which is crucial for the applications running on top of it, by rewarding those who help build it.”
Gabriel (EF JavaScript) - “The sustainable and community-driven funding mechanic introduced by the Protocol guild will increasingly become, I believe, a foundation ensuring the perennity of the Ethereum ecosystem. It aligns us with our core decentralization ethos while at the same time rewarding and incentivizing long-term contributions to a groundbreaking public good.”
Gary Schulte (Hyperledger Besu) - “Narrowing the incentive gap between Ethereum core-protocol work and the more lucrative application space is an important effort worth putting time and resources into. ”
Holger Drewes (EF JavaScript) - “The Protocol Guild is a great chance to align core protocol incentivization with the core values Ethereum stands for.”
Jason Carver (EF Portal) - “We should explore many approaches for supporting collaboration. It’s a valuable and hard problem to generate and maintain public goods.”
Jiri Peinlich (Hyperledger Besu) - “We should be among the first who try new ways of organizing enabled by the decentralized paradigm. This example will hopefully inspire other groups to self organize and self govern. ”
Jordan Hrycaj (Status) - “Giving as much agency to independent contributors as possible.”
Justin Florentine (Hyperledger Besu) - “Funding public goods is a hard problem, I look forward to making some mistakes along the way so others can learn from us. Someone’s gotta try!”
Mark Mackey (Lighthouse) - “Every core developer I’ve talked to is well aware that they can earn significantly more working in other fields or even just at the application layer. I personally couldn’t even afford to join this effort until I was able to subsidize myself. This is strange for an industry acutely aware of incentive structures. If we care about the long-term heath of the base layer, it is important we mitigate this so we can attract and retain talent.”
Michael Sproul (Lighthouse) - “I love that Protocol Guild centers individual contributors ahead of organisations, and in doing so grants autonomy to all of the people working on Ethereum’s base layer. We have an opportunity to prove the viability of an alternative funding model for public goods, which I hope will inspire many more experiments in radical economic coordination.”
Nazar Hussain (Lodestar) - “Mass adoption is the fundamental requirement for any disruptive innovation that could change the world. And for that infrastructure involving that innovation is the key pillar. The Protocol Guild can strengthen that pillar and hence will prove to be the best operational strategy for the betterment of the Ethereum Ecosystem. ”
Nishant Das (Prysm) - “The Protocol Guild helps keep core developers focused on protocol work rather than jumping to the application layer where the upside is significantly more. Having a sustainable source of funding for public goods such as protocol work is valuable. ”
Phil Ngo (Lodestar) - “Protocol developers and researchers create the base foundation for which Ethereum stands upon. The amount of responsibility bestowed upon them is not necessarily incentivized monetarily nor does value generated on Ethereum trickle down to the base layer for protocol development. The protocol guild is a valuable experiment to incentivize great minds to contribute to the long-term future of Ethereum while having their basic needs met.”
Pooja Ranjan (Ethereum Cat Herders) - “Incentivizing contributors is a great way to keep them motivated for ongoing work. Many of us started as volunteers and I am expecting more to join in the future. Protocol Guild is a well planned initiative to incentivize community contributors to the Ethereum protocol development work.”
potuz (Prysm) - “End user applications stand on the shoulders of core development. In a world with multiple competing personal and institutional interests, this project helps keeping those interests as far away from core Ethereum development as possible.”
Preston Van Loon (Prysm) - “Client software powers the Ethereum network! Crafting mechanisms to support the teams working on it long into the future is an important project.”
Raul Jordan (Prysm) - “The Ethereum Foundation has a philosophy of subtraction. That is, it aims to be irrelevant over time as grassroots teams take over development, research, and community. We started working on a consensus client because of the immense potential we see in introducing new engineers to build public goods for Ethereum, just as we did. We believe being an independent team that has built a popular client helps inspire others to do the same and grow the ethos of Ethereum’s decentralized development. hopefully the Protocol Guild will also inspire more contributors to join us in maintaining the core protocol.”
Taran Singh (Prysm) - “I believe a future with a sustainable financial system is only possible when the people behind its success are working towards a common purpose without restriction and strings attached.”
Tim Beiko (EF Protocol Support) - “Aligning the incentives of the people supporting the Ethereum protocol with the success of the applications built on top of it allows these motivated contributors to keep doing what they do best, building Ethereum, while also being rewarded with some of the value they help create. ”
Tomasz Stanczak (Nethermind) - “Protocol Guild is a well planned and honestly designed experiment for protocol development.”
Trenton Van Epps (EF Protocol Support) - “The Protocol Guild is Ethereum itself beginning to comprehend its agency - I’m happy to be part of such an important initiative. Long-term maintenance of foundational internet infrastructure should accrue material social, cultural and financial benefits to contributors.”
Zahary Karadzhov (Status) - “This project can empower many individual contributors to start working on Ethereum without the backing of a large corporate sponsor.”